The invention relates to a packaging for surgical suture material, with a base in which a thread duct which runs in a wound manner is formed, which opens at its first end to a thread removal zone, and with a cover for the base.
Such packagings for surgical suture material are known and described e.g. in EP 0 471 458 A1. At least one surgical thread can be housed in the thread duct, which can be removed from the packaging via the thread removal zone, which is arranged here in the periphery area of the base, after opening the packaging. Being guided through the thread duct is to prevent the surgical thread from sticking or becoming entangled with other thread parts. As the thread duct is constructed in a wound manner (e.g. in a spiral-like manner), relatively long surgical threads can be housed in a compact packaging.
In the packaging for surgical suture material known from EP 0 471 458 A1, there is located at the thread removal zone in the cover an opening through which a surgical needle projects which is attached to the end of a surgical thread stored in the packaging. To remove the suture material, it is necessary to pull on the needle. The thread then slides through the relatively small opening and can rub against the edge of the opening, which is a disadvantage. A further disadvantage of the previously known packaging is that the front end of the thread, here in the area of the point of attachment to the needle, must be guided through the opening in the cover with a fairly small radius of curvature as the front end area of the thread or the needle is otherwise not safely accessible after the packaging is opened (which is carried out by folding down a flap covering the opening away from the cover). In areas with a small radius of curvature or at kinks, a surgical thread does not generally reassume its original straight form again after removal from the packaging (thread memory effect), which is not desired.
The object of the invention is to provide a packaging for surgical suture material from which surgical suture material can be removed easily and without problems, a thread memory effect being largely avoided.
This object is achieved by a packaging for surgical suture material with the features of claim 1. Advantageous versions of the invention result from the dependent claims.
The packaging according to the invention for surgical suture material has a base in which a thread duct running in a wound manner is formed. The thread duct opens at one end, its first end, to a thread removal zone which is preferably formed in the peripheral area of the base. The packaging also has a cover for the base. The thread removal zone has a recess in the base which is adjacent to the first end of the thread duct. A thread tray facing the first end of the thread duct is located adjacent to this recess.
The packaging according to the invention is particularly suitable for needleless suture material, i.e. for surgical threads to which no surgical needle is attached; it can however also be used for suture material with needles. The thread duct can serve to house one, but also several surgical threads. The front end areas of the surgical threads (to which a needle is optionally attached) project out of the first end of the thread duct, bridge the recess of the thread removal zone and end (optionally with the needle) on the thread tray.
To remove the surgical suture material from the packaging according to the invention, a gastight sealed outer wrapper generally provided is firstly opened and the packaging removed from it. The thread removal zone is immediately accessible; it is not necessary to open an additional locking piece. A surgeon or an assistant can therefore grip the surgical threads in the area of the recess without any problems and pull them from the thread tray. The free ends of the surgical threads (or optionally the needles) fan out slightly so that a desired thread can be removed safely and quickly.
The removal of the suture material is particularly easy if the recess of the thread removal zone extends from the periphery of the base, i.e. if it is freely accessible from the periphery of the base, as is the case in a preferred version.
The surgical suture material need not be guided through a relatively narrow opening in the cover, as with the packaging known from EP 0 471 458 A1, but can be pulled directly from the first end of the thread duct via the freely accessible thread removal zone. Surgical suture material located in the packaging can be laid so that no undesired kinks form. To avoid a thread memory effect, it is also advantageous to have the thread removal zone preferably situated in the peripheral area of the base, as the initially more closely wound coils of a surgical thread which are located in the inner area of the packaging when packed are extended to ever-greater radii of curvature when pulled out through the thread duct.
In a preferred version of the invention, the thread tray is arranged in the base, and preferably as a part of the bottom of the base. A thread holder is preferably located above the thread tray, which can have a nose which extends from a raised edge of the base. In this case, the front end of the surgical threads (or optionally the needles attached to them or their tips) are held particularly safely and protected in the packaging. The thread holder can be located directly above the thread tray, or (e.g. for manufacturing reasons) displaced with respect to the thread tray.
The cover preferably leaves the thread removal zone free or essentially free, i.e. the cover does not cover the thread removal zone. The end areas of the surgical threads (or optionally the needles attached to them) are therefore directly visible, which facilitates the removal of the threads individually or also in bundles.
If the cover partly or completely covers the thread removal zone, then the thread holder can be formed by a part of the cover.
In a preferred design of the invention, the base has a raised edge in the area of the thread tray. This raised edge preferably runs transverse to the axis of the thread duct, which extends in the longitudinal direction of the thread duct in the area of the first end of the thread duct. This means that this axis determines the direction in which a surgical thread emerges from the thread duct. As the raised edge runs transverse to this in the area of the thread tray, the surgical threads have a curvature in the area between the first end of the thread duct and the thread tray, so that the end areas of the surgical threads are somewhat pressed against the raised wall, which ensures a particularly safe hold.
The thread duct is preferably formed in spiral-like manner. This makes it possible to house one or more relatively long surgical threads on a relatively small surface area of the base. In a version with a spiral-like thread duct, the second end of the thread duct is located proximate a peripheral edge of the base. In another version with a spiral-like thread duct, the thread duct has a turn in the central area of the base and is led back to the peripheral area of the base where the second end of the thread duct is located.
In a preferred design of the invention, the base and/or the cover has an opening in the area of the second end of the thread duct. To fill the packaging with surgical suture material, below-atmospheric pressure can be applied to this opening. In this way, surgical threads, which are introduced into the first end of the thread duct with their ends opposite the ends considered up to now, can be sucked into the thread duct without problems.
The cover is preferably designed as a flat sheet and can comprise cardboard or paper (preferably paper of medical quality). The cover preferably has polyethylene or polypropylene or a spunbonded polyolefine (such as e.g. polyolefine fibre tissue (fleece) sold by DuPont under the mark xe2x80x9cTyvekxe2x80x9d) on its underside facing the base. The cover can for example consist of a sheet or film made from polyethylene or polypropylene or a sheet made from xe2x80x9cTyvekxe2x80x9d, but composite structures containing cardboard or paper are also conceivable. In a particularly advantageous version of the invention, the cover is made from a piece of cardboard which is coated on its underside with polyethylene. Such a cover has various advantages: Cardboard is suitable for imprinting, so that the packaging can be easily provided with a product label. Furthermore, cardboard acts as a hydrostore, i.e. it is able to absorb residual quantities of water after a packaging with surgical suture material has been introduced into a tight outer wrapper. The cover covers the thread duct at the top and thus protects the surgical suture material contained in it. Such a cover acts as a lid for the base and thus reinforces the entire package. Furthermore, the paper fibres of the cardboard are bound by the polyethylene coating on the side of the cover facing the surgical suture material so that no contamination of the product contained in the packaging can occur. In principle, the cover can be glued onto the base e.g. with dispersion varnish or adhesive, but it is sealed in the particularly advantageous version (see below).
The base is preferably formed as an injection-molded part and can consist of polyethylene or polypropylene. Injection-molded parts can be prepared in large quantities at favorable cost and with high precision.
In the particularly advantageous version mentioned, the cover is sealed onto the base which is made from polyethylene in this case. To do this, the cover or the base or both components are heated so that the two facing surfaces containing polyethylene melt together. The temperature and the contact pressure are preferably chosen so that a bead forms to the cover in the upper end area of the thread duct wall. This bead forms from surplus melted polyethylene which is pulled from the duct wall in a furrow-like manner to the polyethylene coating on the underside of the cover as a result of intermolecular interactions. The bead formation has the advantage that gaps are reliably avoided between the upper end area of the duct wall and the cover. Therefore there is no need to fear that when surgical suture material is removed, a thread becomes stuck or pulled tight in such a gap, which would be a great disadvantage. The particularly advantageous version of the packaging according to the invention for surgical suture material can be cheaply produced and also has a cross-section form of the thread duct which enables the thread to be withdrawn safely.
To avoid the base warping when the cover is sealed on, a basis sheet is sealed onto the underside of the base in a preferred version. The basis sheet can be formed in the same way as the cover, thus for example it can be made from cardboard coated with polyethylene, the polyethylene facing the underside of the base. The cover and the base sheet are preferably sealed on simultaneously. When cooling, the tensions on the top and on the underside of the base compensate largely so that the packaging does not warp or bend, or only slightly.
The packaging according to the invention for surgical suture material can thus be produced cheaply and is simple and reliable in handling. In particular, the surgical threads contained in the packaging (optionally threads with needles) can be removed individually or in bundles easily and without problems, as the thread removal zone is directly accessible. When removing the surgical suture material, the threads are at most minimally damaged, as they are neither squeezed nor squashed nor sharply bent. The packaging can be produced with small dimensions and a small overall height, although it is suitable for storing relatively long surgical threads. This reduces the storage and transport costs. Packagings, which are similarly constructed in principle, can be used for completely different thread lengths and also thread numbers.